The Michael Jackson trial reached the half-way point with the prosecution resting its case on Wednesday.
Santa Barbara District Attorney Thomas Sneddon’s case against Jackson lasted over 10 weeks and utilized over 80 witnesses, including the accuser who alledged that Jackson molested him on at least two occasions, showed him adult magazines and plied him with alcohol.
And the accuser’s mother who claimed that Jackson and his associates conspired to hold her and her family against their will in order to make a rebuttal video to help repair the damage caused by the Martin Bashir interview with Jackson. However, the prosecution’s presentation was riddled with problem witnesses, including the accuser and his mother whose testimony faltered under strong cross-examination by Jackson defense attorney Thomas Mesereau.
Furthermore, the DA sought to repair the damage to the conspiracy charge with its last witness Rudy Provencio.
Provencio’s testimony was to provide the badly needed linkage of Jackson to other unindicted co-conspirators that the DA failed to gain with the surprising testimony of Deborah Rowe, Jackson’s ex-wife last week.
However, Provencio’s testimony failed to link Jackson to the conspiracy charge.
Provencio testified that Jackson associate and unindicted co-conspirator F. Marc Schaffel made references to ‘killers’ being after the family.
He had asked Schaffel who the killers were, and Provencio testified the reply had been "The killers that are after the family". Provencio said he had been concerned, and contacted another Jackson employee, Vincent Amen, seeking more details.
"He goes, 'there are no killers'" Provencio said. Amen had told him, the only thread was from other students at the accuser’s school, who had harassed the boy because of his appearance with Jackson in the documentary "Living With Michael Jackson".
Provencio also testified that Schaffel had called the accuser’s family as ‘stupid Mexicans’ and once told Jackson during a phone conversation that the family could ruin his career and blackmail him.
"They could ruin your career. They could blackmail you." Provencio quoted Mr. Schaffel as saying.
He also stated that Schaffel had ended a phone conversation, saying he could not talk, because "they had just escaped". Again he had called Mr. Amen, who was also unable to talk, because "They had. just escaped"
Provencio also stated that another associate, Dieter Wiesner suggested to Jackson that the family be taken to Florida to do a press conference, and Jackson replied saying "I hate doing those things" and the witnessed continued "Michael said he wanted to go someplace fun".
But when asked if there was any further discussion, Provencio said, "Not really."
Under cross-examination, Provencio admitted that he went back to augment his journal notes as late as two weeks ago after the sheriff’s department gave him the notes to review.
Provencio testified that he has regularly kept a journal since he was a child.
"I thought it was fishy and it was moving to quickly that if I didn't write it down I might forget it" Provencio explained.
But Mesereau pointed out inconsistencies in his journal entries, specifically one entered for February 1, 2003 where Provencio makes a reference to the ‘killers’ and a February 2, 2003 entry where Provencio writes that the accuser’s mother is ‘flipping out’ over something.
Provencio admitted under cross that he had not met the accuser’s family as of February 1, 2003 and that his notes for that time period was based on hearsay.
"Sir, you went back and wrote those notes because you wanted to be involved in this case," Mr. Mesereau said.
"God, no. And ruin my career?" Provencio responded.
"It just happens that all the dates are wrong?" Mr. Mesereau continued.
"Not all the dates are wrong" the witness replied.
Furthermore, Mesereau noted during questioning that Provencio did not mention in his initial interviews with police anything about ‘killers’ or Jackson being involved with those others at that time.
Source: Ap/Reuters/eMJey